Discount Cigarettes - Dollar-a-pack cigarette-tax increase meets with approval and outrage

Maryland - Smokers in Maryland will have to pay an extra buck to light up Tuesday when a $2 cigarette tax goes into effect statewide.The $1-a-pack increase - passed into law last month during a special session of the Maryland General Assembly - means Maryland has, with five other states, the fourth-highest cigarette tax in the nation, according to data from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Maine and Michigan also have $2-a-pack levies. Full Story

CIGARETTE TAX A BOON FOR TEXAS AS FEWER QUIT

AUSTIN, Texas — The hefty $1-a-pack tax increase on cigarettes has produced $244 million more in revenue for the state than experts projected last year.
Consumption did not drop as dramatically as expected. But anti-smoking groups say they are not disappointed because 261 million fewer packs have been sold since Texas lawmakers raised the cigarette tax from 41 cents to $1.41 per pack. Full Story

Cigarette Tax Starting January 1st

Wisconsin - Starting January 1st, smokers will have to carry an extra dollar in their pocket next time they buy cigarettes.
That's because a new tax means the price for a pack of cigarettes will be raised one dollar.
The new price for cigarettes has some smokers making their new years resolution early, to quit smoking.
While some smokers are planning to save money by quitting, others are making different preparing for the new year, by stocking up now while the price is low. Full Story

Warning smokers with pics on cigarette packs

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - In an effort to reduce smoking across Pakistan, the government is considering amending the Non-Smokers' Health Ordinance 2002 so that the text health warnings on cigarette packets may be replaced with pictorial warnings, according to sources.
"We are considering bringing amendment to the Non-Smokers' Health Ordinance 2002 to replace the text warnings with images and pictures depicting the hazards of tobacco use," they said. Full Story

Restrictions, cigarette tax prompt more to quit smoking

Chattanooga TN - More barriers to smoking -- including higher taxes and a statewide smoking ban -- are encouraging more Tennesseans to take steps to break the habit, state and local health officials say.
"I think it's a combination of fewer convenient places to smoke ... and just the growing social unacceptability" of being a smoker, said Jay Collum, coordinator of tobacco use, prevention and education at the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department. "All of those things combined just are pushing people to think about it." Full Story

Californians back hiking cigarette tax by $2: poll

SAN FRANCISCO, California - California voters by nearly a 2-to-1 majority would support increasing their state's cigarette tax by $2 per pack to help raise cash for a state effort to provide health-care insurance to the uninsured, according to the latest Field Poll released on Friday. Full Story

France fears arrival of cigarette-smoking ban

France - The day of reckoning has arrived for Europe's most incorrigible smokers. On January 1, it will become illegal to light up in bars, restaurants or nightclubs, and as the deadline nears, a palpable sense of panic is taking hold. Cafe owners warn of mass insurrection, businessmen say productivity could plunge, and psychologists fear the country may not stand the shock. Even the national heritage lobby is upset, arguing that smoke is an emblem of Gallic identity. Full Story

Experts say cigarette tax hike could fund health care proposals

TOPEKA, Kansas - Budget experts say proposed health care reforms could easily be funded by a 50-cent per pack increase in the state cigarette tax.
But since 2008 is an election year, some lawmakers say there won't be much of an appetite for raising taxes, even those on tobacco.
Reform proposals from the Kansas Health Policy Authority include:
A statewide ban on smoking in public places. Full Story

Los Angeles County considers tobacco sales permit - $235 annual permit

Los Angeles, California - Merchants in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County would be required to buy a $235 annual permit to sell cigarettes and other tobacco products, under a proposal the Board of Supervisors is scheduled to act on today. Backers say the proposal would strengthen efforts to keep minors from smoking, which county health officials say is a ballooning problem. Critics say it would hurt law-abiding mom-and-pop retailers already hurt by high taxes. Officials estimate the fee would affect roughly 1,000 merchants and raise about $235,000 a year. The money would pay for sting operations in about 200 stores a year and fund antismoking campaigns aimed at those under 18. At least three of the five supervisors have said they support the measure. Full Story

University Offers SUCCEED Short Course for Young Tobacco Growers

North Carolina - A new five-day program for young tobacco growers is being offered at N.C. State University. SUCCEED is being jointly designed by the Tobacco Growers Association of North Carolina and N.C. State University and is being made possible through a grant from the N.C. Tobacco Trust Fund. SUCCEED is loosely patterned after the former Philip Morris Short Course for Young Tobacco Farmers that came to an end with the federal tobacco quota buyout, says Bill Collins, senior director of development of Constituency Development Programs at N.C. State University. Enrollment will be limited to about 25 students. Full Story

West Virginia Tobacco Use Declining

WHEELING, West Virginia — A decline in cigarette sales in the Wheeling area gives credence to a West Virginia Division of Tobacco Prevention report claiming there is a decline in the number of people lighting up. WVDTP Director Bruce W. Adkins said the report, released last week, shows the prevalence of Mountain State adult smokers is lower than it has been in decades and that the youth smoking rate has dropped 32 percent over the past five years. Adkins credits three factors for the decline in tobacco use. “We have the busiest tobacco quit line per capita in the country,” he said. “Over the past couple of years, it has averaged 40,000 calls per year.” Full Story

Leaders urge more cigarette regulation

Tennessee - Public health and faith leaders met at MTSU today urging U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon to support federal legislation authorizing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products. The bill has 209 sponsors in the House of Representatives and 55 Senate sponsors. Gordon, D-Murfreesboro, is not a co-sponsor. If it passes, supporters say it would save Tennessee $901.3 million in tobacco-related health costs by stopping 51,000 children from becoming smokers. Full Story

Minnesota appeals court revives lawsuit against cigarette makers

ST. PAUL - A previously dismissed lawsuit claiming deceptive marketing by tobacco companies has been revived by the Minnesota Court of Appeals.
Tuesday's decision allows two longtime smokers to sue R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company over its marketing of light, or "lowered tar," filtered cigarettes. The lawsuit seeks class-action status. Full Story

Cuyahoga Arts and Culture prepares to distribute cigarette tax funds

Cleveland, Ohio - Cuyahoga Arts and Culture will distribute $15 million to nonprofit arts and cultural organizations in each of the next three years.
Officials for the agency, which was created to administer the cigarette tax approved by Cuyahoga County voters last year, say they expect the tax will draw $19 million this year and next year and about $17.5 million in 2009. Full Story - More News

Fire chiefs urge lawmakers to require fire-safe cigarettes

Virginia - Fire chiefs from around the state are looking to lawmakers to help cut down on smoking-related fires.
The Virginia Fire Chief's Association has helped draft a bill that would force cigarette makers to only sell fire-safe cigarettes in Virginia. Those cigarettes burn themselves out if left alone. Full Story

Cigarette Importer To Pay Additional $3.1 Million

Charleston, South Carolina - Officials say a company has agreed to pay an additional $3.1 million after falsely reporting the weight of cigarettes it imported through Charleston.
Court records show Premier Manufacturing pleaded guilty two years ago to underreporting the weight of cigarettes it brought in from Spain, China and Greece since 1995. Full Story

States sue Reynolds over magazine cigarette ad

BOSTON - Eight states sued the maker of Camel cigarettes on Tuesday, charging that a promotion in an issue of Rolling Stone magazine violates a 1998 agreement not to use cartoons in its marketing efforts.
The suits focus on ads for the Camel brand, produced by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., which appeared in a nine-page foldout section in the November 15 issue of the music and popular culture magazine. Full Story

Much of Suit Aimed at Indian Cigarette Sales Is Dismissed

New York - A federal judge has dismissed all but one charge in a lawsuit, filed last year by a supermarket mogul who hopes to be the next mayor of New York City, that challenged two Long Island Indian tribes over their longstanding practice of selling tax-free cigarettes from reservation smoke shops.
John A. Catsimatidis, whose holdings include the Gristedes supermarket chain, claimed in the suit that the two tribes illegally undercut his business, and he sought to force Indian retailers to buy cigarettes from wholesalers at the taxed price. He also asked for $20 million from the two tribes’ cigarette retailers, the amount he claims he has lost. Full Story

States Sue RJ Reynolds Over Camel Ads In Rolling Stone Magazine

HARRISBURG PA - An illustrated advertising section in Rolling Stone magazine violates the tobacco industry's nine-year-old promise not to use cartoons to sell cigarettes, state officials charged Tuesday.
Attorney general's offices in at least eight states planned to file lawsuits starting Tuesday about the advertising for Camel cigarettes in the November edition of Rolling Stone, officials said.
The section combines pages of Camel cigarette ads with pages of magazine-produced illustrations on the theme of independent rock music.
"Their latest nine-page advertising spread in Rolling Stone, filled with cartoons, flies in the face of their pledge to halt all tobacco marketing to children," Pennsylvania's Attorney General Tom Corbett said in a statement released Tuesday. Full Story